Chapter 57

* * *Taesik got out immediately after receiving the call. He saw Miso sitting at the bar that was playing light jazz. Since he knew the bartender, he gave the man a curt nod.“You’re here?”Miso waved. Surprisingly, she wasn’t drunk just yet. Taesik sat down next to the woman. The bartender slid him a Jack Coke and some canapes. ‘It’s on the house’, the man whispered.“I met the kids today.” “The acting club?”“Yes.”“How were they?”“Well, you know.”Miso’s pouty face turned into a smile. Taesik retracted his previous statement. The woman was a little drunk. Thank goodness she wasn’t completely hammered, though.“Teacher.”“What is it?”“Maru… said he was fine.”“......”That must be why the woman seemed so sad and lonely when he entered. Taesik took a sip of his Jack Coke. He wasn’t a fan of drinking, but he felt like he had to today.“It’s all my fault. I looked down on him.”“Looked down on him?”“It’s a strange way of putting it, but I don’t know how else to explain it.”Miso’s eyes glimmered under the bar’s moody lights. Taesik looked forward, trying to ignore those eyes.“When I asked Maru to handle the acting club’s problems, I didn’t expect him to do such a thing. I just wanted him to make them be a little more aware. You know, to say stuff like, ‘you need to practice’, or ‘this isn’t right’, or something. Saying that is more than enough. Especially out of a high schooler. After all, stuff like that isn’t easy to say at all.”“You thought that Maru would stop after presenting the problem to them?”Taesik nodded.“That’s right. I asked him to fix it, but I didn’t expect him to restore it. I expected him to stop after making the club start to fall apart faster and I’d step in to help. Before that, I couldn’t step in at all. If I tried to mess with the club without even knowing what was happening with the kids… They would stop caring about the club altogether.”Taesik shrugged at Miso.“But look at what happened. Maru was even more aware of what was happening than I thought. He knew how to fix it, too. He resolved the situation like an adult.”“...To become an object of hatred.”“That’s right. The club needed a reason to stay together. Back then, they were together, but they had no reason to be together. Maru decided to provide them a reason in the simplest form possible.”“Why would he!”Miso angrily snatched Taesik’s drink to take a sip from it.“Why does he always try to solve everything by himself? Why? Does he know he’s going to become a loner if he does that? Does he want to play the hero role? He has to be feeling lonely.”Taesik shook his head.“That’s what I thought too. I thought he’d be lonely. But after I talked to him last time, I learned something. Maru never sacrificed himself. To begin with, he never felt lonely.”“What are you talking about? I saw everything. The kids just stopped talking when Maru came. I know it’s not their fault, and I know kids are all like that in their age, but...”Taesik told Miso to calm down, causing her to pout again. She looked like she was about to cry. Taesik was used to the situation. He just patted the woman’s shoulders lightly.“Maru was even more mature than I thought. He might even be more of an adult than me.”“....Did he really say he wasn’t lonely?”“I told you, didn’t I? I talked to him. He told me that loneliness was only felt by people who weren't alone from the start.”“What in the world...”Taesik sighed.“You knew Maru always drew a line with the club, right?”“Of course.”“Maru… never felt attached to the club.”“......”“He also told me that playing a villain wasn’t really a bad thing. Someone had to do it, so it might as well be him, he said. He was actually feeling a little apologetic for going overboard in the situation.”Taesik’s shock from hearing that still hasn’t left him. Maru told him those words without a single hesitation in his voice. The boy actually looked incredibly calm when he said it. Almost like there was… not just a mature person, but a fully grown adult who has already walked down the path of life before, dwelling inside the boy. “He was worried for me and you as well, by the way.”“What?”“He was worried we might start blaming ourselves. You in particular, he thought would feel sorry about pushing what you thought was your job to him.”“Ugh, he should worry more about himself.”Miso took a fresh sip of the Jack Coke with a confused look on her face. Taesik ordered some juice from the bartender. He didn’t want Miso drinking any more than this. Miso downed the entire glass of juice in one shot before shaking her head.“Alright, screw it. I take back what I said about being sorry. I’m really going to go for it now.”“Instructor Miso?”“Never felt like he belonged in the club? So he really drew a line right there, huh?”Miso started spitting out words into the air. Taesik could only smile awkwardly looking at her eyes. They seemed pretty dangerous.“I’m going to put you on the stage, just you watch! Ugh, so you think you’re the only person who can act like an adult?! Do you even know how sorry I was?! Ugh, give me back my feelings!”Miso seemed like an iron fortress when she was teaching, but in her private life, she was nothing more than an overgrown version of her high school self. Without realizing it, Taesik put a hand over Miso’s round head and started patting her. Like he would a dog. The woman immediately calmed down. Her reddened face turned to look at him. Taesik coughed awkwardly and tried to take his hand off, but Miso was a step faster.His hand was caught in hers.“Teacher.”“Ye-yes?”“No more trying to be so formal.”“...Instructor Miso?”“You know, today… Maru told me one thing.”“W-what did he tell you?”Without saying another word, Miso put her lips straight over Taesik’s. “Flipping finally. It’s been way too long,” the bartender let out.Taesik was as confused as he could be. All he could see was Miso’s smiling face in his vision.“He told me to just go for it. I did well, right? Hehe.”And then she collapsed into his arms. All Taesik could do at this point was look at the grinning bartender with a confused face.